A Daughter's (Unexpected) Love
by TheClumsyHero
Summary: When Spirit is on his usual prowl to hunt down his wonderful daughter, Maka noticed something off about her father. When she realizes he is extremely sick, and then comes to also realize he is all alone, she decides that she will have to be the one to look after him.


It was a bright sunny day in Death City... only, the sun didn't seem like it would hold out for too much longer. Some thick heavy clouds were slowly beginning to cover up the large sun, which caused it to have quite the irritated look as a response. It had been a few days since it was able to see past the clouds, due to the fact that snow had been falling on and off periodically. Fresh snow was sprinkled on the ground, and had barely been touched on the beautiful Satruday morning. Unfortunately, the beautiful white fluffy snow had gone untouched for but a short while, for now there was a man wandering out, looking for someone in particular: his daughter.

Spirit was always a persistent one, but today he was finding it acceptionally hard to pull himself up out of bed. His head felt as if it were pounding. He didn't remember drinking at all the night before, so it was rather odd. Either way, he needed to visit his little Maka today, and a small headache wasn't keeping him down! The man had hopped to his feet, but didn't stay there for too long. A wave of dizziness suddenly washed over the Death Scythe, and he had to sit back down for a moment until his vision came back, and things calmed down. Now that he was taking a moment... he realized that his nose was completely stuffed up. That's when it finally clicked. Had he caught a cold!? Surely he wouldn't let something so trivial keep him away from his daughter! And so, he quickly changed out of his pajamas, and was into his normal attire in no time! He made sure that he bundled up tightly; heavy winter coat... eh, that was good enough. Spirit was oddly enough already roasting in what he was wearing. His clothes normally didn't cause him to feel so hot, and yet, he felt as if he was baking within his coat. That would change when he hit the cold... or so he thought. He still felt overly heated when he made it out, and began trailing off to look for his darling daughter.

Maka had been out of the house already to take in the beautiful day. She was never one to keep herself cooped up in the house all day. A book was held tightly in her right hand, and she glanced up at the now oncoming light snowflakes. She planned on headding to a cafe or perhaps even outside for a little bit while she read her book. Unlike her father, Maka was bundled up rather tightly. A heavy winter coat, gloves, and even earmuffs, but unlike Spirit, the cold was still nipping at her. The beginning of her walk was nice. The snow was slowly falling, and then would stop for a short while.  
'I wonder if Soul is going to sleep the entire day away... no, I doubt Blaire would let him. She is so-'  
"MAAAKAAA~~~!"  
Instantly pulled out of her thoughts, the girls head snapped upright. She knew that voice... and that shadow slowly advancing toward her. She was in no mood for her father at the moment, and quite frankly, he was ruining her morning. With a frustrated breath, she slowly turned to face him with the most annoyed face she could muster. Only, Spirit fell short on his run towards his daughter. Actually, he fell short quite some bit. Not even half way towards her, was he half bent over, huffing and puffing. By now, he felt as if his body was completely overheating. But, he couldn't allow this little inconvience stop him from getting to his daughter! And besides, if he didn't run over, she would walk away. So, he pulled himself up and bolted over.  
"M-Maka!" he huffed, finally making it up to her.  
"What do you want?" She hissed back under her breath.  
"Your papa just wanted to spend this beautiful day with you~!" He hummed back in a cheerful, and yet held back tone.  
Maka could tell he was actually trying to be irritating...er...well, that was just natural. He was just trying to be chipper in all reality.  
"No, I would never want to spend my free day with you. Go home, or somewhere else. Somewhere away from me."  
"B-But Maka-"  
"No, I'm leaving now." She turned on her heels and started on her way off... and yet he followed her anyway. She was already irritated by the fact he even showed up... and now he was follwoing her. Maka felt her temper slowly boiling over Without thinking, she turned on her heels yet again, and just snapped.  
"I TOLD YOU TO GO AWAY! I DON'T LIKE YOU, WHY WOULD I WANT TO SPEND A DAY WITH YOU!?" She shouted, her brows knitted tightly together...only, she was surprised what she saw.

This wasn't the same flustered, and irritating father she knew. By now he was usually bawling and begging forgiveness, or running off in the opposite direction, but he wasn't doing that. He wasn't doing anything. He was actually a few paces behind her. His usually tanned expression was flushed of color, which if she didn't know better, looked like it all went into his cheeks which were bright red and matched his hair. His eyes had been drooped, and it seemed as if he were in a daze.  
"...Papa?" Maka questioned, taking a few steps towards him. "...Papa?" She spoke up a bit more that time, just trying to get an answer. Just before she went to call his name again, Spirit toppled forward.  
"PAPA!" She shouted, and quickly scurried forward, just barely keeping his entire body from hitting the ground. Now that she had at least caught his arms, she was able to get a better look at him. His forehead was drenched with sweat. She carefully wiped it away with the back of her sleeve, and then slid her glove off. She clamped her hand onto his forehead, and no later was it retracted.  
"Gh!...Oh Papa, you idiot..." She murmured under her breath. "You're burning up..."  
It looked like she was going to have to drag him home. He couldn't stay out in the cold with such a high fever.

And so, Maka had wrapped her father's arms around her, and did her best to drag him back to her place. There was no way she would have made it all the way back to his house. And thinking about it, it sort of tugged at her heart to admit, she had no idea where he lived. When they reached her house, she tugged him into the guest room Blaire had been staying in, and placed her father gently upon the bed. Blaire was a cat. She would find somewhere else to sleep, and or, would probably end up sleeping with Soul (in her cat form, probably not, but that didn't matter at the moment). Make gently began to tug the jacket off her father's shoulders, and then began to undo his tie, and unbutton a few buttons on his shirt. He was really, really hot. She would have to do something about that when she was done. After she gently folded his things over a chair at an empty desk, she pulled the blanket up over him, and went off to fetch something for that fever until he woke up.

A cool surface was what had stirred the man from his sleep, although, he was still in a daze.  
"M...Maka..." He mumbled under his breath as he tilted his head gently to the side. He sounded much worse than before, and conjested, which only made Maka frown. She knew he sounded off, but she didn't know how hard he was trying to sound like he was fine in front of her. He probably didn't want her to worry... no. He knew she wouldn't worry. She always told him how much she despised him, or at least did her best to show it.  
"Papa... sorry..."  
Although his words had wrenched her heart even more, she was happy he was awake. He had been out for quite some time now, and had not awoken the first time the cloth touched his head, and it was already time to change it. It had really worried her.  
"Please relax, Papa." Maka responded in a small, soothing voice as she pressed a cool cloth to her father's head, and brushed a few strands of hair out of his eyes which were now slowly opening. "You're burning up. Why on earth would you run out in the cold?" She huffed rather frustrated.  
Spirit smiled gently in response, and went to sit himself up, but Maka forced him down.  
"I went to see my little girl on my day off, of course." He cooed with a gentle laugh, which soon turned into a cough. That only made her feel worse about being so brutal.  
"Well you shouldn't have. What if you fainted with no one around? You would be so much worse."  
"I am fine. I should head off and go home, anyway. I just need a little rest, that's all."  
"Papa, it is much worse than that, and you know that there is a bug going around. It may seem little now, but you don't know if it will get any worse, and what if it did?"  
"Maka, you worry to much. Really, I will be fine heading ho-"  
Before he knew it, there was a gentle knock at the door before it opened. In the doorway stood a tall slender man, stitches running across his clothes and body, his glasses gleaming, and a malicious look on his face.  
Spirit's own expression had dropped in an instant, and he suddenly felt fifty times worse.  
"STEIN."


End file.
